1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a computer-readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses that form an image by firing ink droplets have been known. In such an image forming apparatus, when an ink cartridge is installed directly on top of a print head that fires ink droplets, the weight of the ink cartridge might obstruct a carriage holding the print head from carrying the print head in a scanning operation, and might cause image quality deterioration. In response to this issue, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-079292 discloses an image forming apparatus in which an ink cartridge is installed on the main unit of an image forming apparatus, and a subtank for temporarily storing ink is installed on the carriage.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-079292 discloses supplying ink from an ink cartridge to a print head via a subtank. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-079292 discloses performing image formation using ink remaining in a subtank when the ink in an ink cartridge reaches an end state.
In these conventional technologies, if the ink cartridge is kept unused for a long time while the amount of remaining ink is low, nozzles being outlets for firing ink droplets, or the like could be clogged with ink.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a computer-readable storage medium that can suppress deterioration of the image quality caused by ink clogging even when the amount of ink remaining in an ink cartridge is low.